I thought it might be a good idea to create a list of open source software for people to look at, and then try out the programs. I know there are many spots on the internet that already have lists like this, but the catch with this list is going to be:
1.You MUST have used the program and had no MAJOR problems with it. (viruses, malware, etc.)
2.DO NOT repeat software that has already been noted in the list. (If you are too lazy to check, simply press the Ctrl+F keys in your browser and type in part of the software name to see if it has been mentioned.
3.PLEASE categorize your list, otherwise, provide a BREIF description of the software.
4.If the software is FREE but NOT open-source, please note that.
5.Links are not necessary if the software can be found EASILY with a search engine.
6.The software MUST be FREE.
I thought this would be a good idea to help people find free, perhaps open-source software they can trust. This will help people gain a larger interest in open source software if they can find reccomendations of open source/free software in one place. This will hopefully help people realize, hey, why go spend the hundreds of dollars on MS Office when I can get the same thing for FREE (OpenOffice.org, etc) without even the drive to the store!
Note:DO NOT post links to other sites containing lists of open source/free software, only suggest software which abides by the rules of this post. (See Above)
Also note: Please try to not get to off-topic in this thread, just try to post a comment containing the list of free/open source software you've used and recommend in a nice way with categories, and/or descriptions, being sure not to double reccomend.
Please remember, you MUST have used the software before, and had no problems with viruses, malware, etc, in order to post is in this thread. Otherwise unaware users may be trying out new software, that may beging to screw up there computer.
If a link to a list of of software is posted, please use it at your own risk, being aware some of the software found at the link may not have been used at all and may cause problems for you. (Though all software can)
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Wine
Category: Compatibility Layer
OS: Linux,BSD and other Unix-based OSes
URL: Winehq.org
Description: Wine allows you to install and use lots of Windows apps in Linux,BSD and other Unixes, w/o modification to the Windows Software.
I use it pretty much everyday. It is still in development even though it is a 13-year old project.
PortableApps Menu
Category: Application Menu
OS: Windows, Linux w Wine or CrossOver, other Unixes w Wine, Mac OSX w CrossOver
URL: Don;t be lazy hit Suite at the top of the page
Description: PAM is the Kick-ass menu for portable devices, no more said since everyone here knows what it is.
Swiftfox
Category: Browser
OS: Linux
URL: Getswiftfox.com
Description: Swiftfox is an optimized fork of Firefox that is a bit faster and is more secure.
Novell Evolution
Category: E-Mail Client
OS: Linux
URL: http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/
Description: Novell Evolution is simply the Linux equivalent to MS Outlook, except it is opensource and not made by the Evil Empire. Evolution is kick-ass
Wine-Doors
Category: Dunno
OS: Linux
URL: Wine-doors.org
Description: Wine-Doors is simply WineTools on steroids w/o WineTool's negatives. It eases the installation of Windows apps on Wine, plus it has a menu to install apps from other places. It can also manage other versions of Wine such as CrossOver Linux and Cedega. Wine-Doors is in very early development and is only available via SVN.
Rockbox
Category: Firmware
OS: None
Devices: iPod,iRiver, iAudio, Archos Devices, That MP3 player Sandisk made
URL: Rockbox.org
Des: Rockbox is good firmware that replaces an MP3 player's crappy firmware, Rockbox is chock full o' features you are gonna enjoy, Rockbox can be dual-boot with the original firmware.
Eraser
Cat.: File Shredder
OS: Windows
Blender
Cat. 3-D Modeler
OS: Windows
Dark-Oberon
Cat.: Warcraft-like game, also online one
OS: Windows, Linux and other Unixes
Beryl
Cat: Window Manager, w fancy effects
OS: Linux
KOffice
Cat: Office Suite
OS: Windows (some parts), Linux and other Unixes
GNOME Office
Cat: Office Suite
OS: Windows, Linux
OpenOffice.org
Cat: Office Suite
OS: Solaris, Windows, Linux and I think Mac
Amarok
Cat: Audio Player
OS: Linux
Audacity
Cat: Audio Editor
OS: Windows, Linux
Yahoo Widgets Engine! (it is OpenSource, release under BSD Liscence)
Cat: Widget Engine
OS: Windows, Mac
gDesklets
Cat: Widget Engine
OS: Linux
Scribus
Cat: Desktop Publishing
OS: Windows, Mac, Linux
GParted
Cat: Disc Partioner
OS: Linux
Vixy.net
Cat: Flv online vid converter
OS: None
VLC
Cat: Unviersal Media Player
OS: Linux, Windows
File Roller (can create RARs but it needs extra components)
Cat: Archiver
OS: Linux
Thunderbird
Cat: E-Mail Client
OS: Windows, BSD, Linux, Mac
Firefox
Cat: Web Browser
OS: Windows, BSD, Linux, Mac
7-Zip
Cat: Archiver/File Manager
OS: Windows, Linux
Sound Juicer
Cat: CD Ripper
OS: Linux
GIMP
Cat: Image Editor
OS: Linux, Mac and Windows
Konqueror
Cat: Web Browser, File manager
OS: Windows (limited), Linux
FileZilla
Cat: FTP Client
OS: Windows
Category: MP3 Editing (sorta)
OS: W32 and possibly Linux
Program: MP3Gain
Description: Equalises the volume of several MP3s to the same sound level.
Category: Messaging and Communication
OS: Anything with GTK
Program: Gaim
Description: A great messenger that I use at times.
That's all I could recommend.
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
There are only two states in Australia: Queensland and Drunk
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Console
Category: terminal emulators
OS: W32
URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/console
Description: A replacement for the command-line interpreter included with Windows NT. Supports variable opacity for the background, color and cursor customization, and tabs (in 2.0, which is in beta).
--
Ultimate Packer for eXecutables (aka UPX)
Category: compression utilities
OS: Various Unices, W32
URL: upx.sourceforge.net
Description: Allows compression of executables, which will self-extract upon execution, and are intended to appear no different to the kernel. It focuses on extremely fast decompression with compression ratios better than general compression formats.
--
JAva CheCKSUM (aka Jacksum)
Category: checksum utilities
OS: Platform-independent (uses interpreted binaries)
URL: http://www.jonelo.de/java/jacksum, http://sourceforge.net/projects/jacksum
Description: Command-line utility that supports virtually, if not all, checksum algorithms in existence. Calculates checksums of individual files or whole directories (can operate recursively). It can generate output to the terminal or a file, include metadata such as the version, OS, working directory, etc., and verify files against a list.
--
Xming
Category: X compatibility layers
OS: W32
URL: http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes
Description: A minimalistic, but very capable, port of the X Window System to W32. It allows programs that use X to appear on a Windows system, allowing one to use such programs while running Windows.
--
GParted (with a description)
Category: Partition editors/disk management utilities
OS: Linux
URL: http://gparted.sourceforge.net
Description: Excellent Partition Magic clone that provides a frontend and efficiency for various command-line filesystem utilites.
--
Notepad++
Category: Text editors
OS: W32
URL: notepad-plus.sourceforge.net
Description: Highly customizable Notepad replacement with tabs, syntax highlighting for various programming languages, native plugin capability, and macros.
Vintage!
there is a bunch of older stuff at www.winworldpc.com its all free but it is also al MS progs and there is way to much to list. i havent tried much but there are some small problems, hardely worth mentioning. like in the office 97 prog, you have to find all of the files needed and archive them (yes they are included)and find out what the code is. otherwise, for OLDER SOFTWARE, (AKA ABANDONWARE), iz all good!
Zoop
sorry if that aint the kinda software you where looking for.
Zoop
BUT like I said you MUST have at least tried it yourself and had no major problems with it. As well, please don't provide links to other lists, or the site for the open source/free software you suggest. If you want, you can pick out some from that site that you have tried and had no major problems and post them in this thread. Remember not to double reccomend.
Sorry, I was about to post a link to another list. But I just read that Patience wants only the ones I have tried my self. Well, besides the ones found on this site, I really have not tried any others.
---------------
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." -- Confucius
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
Espreon, I was unaware of any W32 port of Konqueror.
Vintage!
Cartes du Ciel is a free sky charting / planetarium software package. The owner has made at least part of the source code available. I have used it with Windows for 5 years and Linux for the past year.
This software will allow you to map the sky and print out charts that list the constellations, stars, galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, asteroids and comets. It contains data from numerous star catalogues, and many other catalogs can be added to the base program. Languages supported are French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Gzech and Greek.
The program looks and works beautifully. I cannot believe it's still being offered for free, since it's better than many star charting packages that cost over $100 US.
If you are interested in astronomy, you will want to check this out.
1. It should be fully open-source. Is the author using proprietary libraries?
2. You should provide a link.
Vintage!
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/index.html
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
The full GPL source code of the version 3 is now available.
- http://www.astrosurf.com/astropc/cartes/sources/index.html
So it is fully open now.
Vintage!
GNU Privacy Guard (aka GnuPG or GPG)
Category: encryption utilities
OS: Linux, Mac OS X, W32 (2.0 branch not pursued in W32, but security fixes are maintained)
URL: http://www.gnupg.org
Description: An implementation on the OpenPGP designed to be compatible with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). Can encrypt/decrpyt and sign/verify messages and files asymmetrically.
--
Enigmail
Category: frontends
OS: platform-independent extension for Mozilla Thunderbird
URL: http://enigmail.mozdev.org
Description: Integrates GnuPG into Mozilla Thunderbird, making encrypting/decrypting and signing/verifying emails and attachments with GnuPG muhc faster and easier.
--
Cooperative Linux (aka CoLinux)
Category: Linux distributions, kernel ports
OS: W32
URL: http://colinux.sourceforge.net
Description: Runs a Linux distribution and programs on a file containing a filesystem via a port of the Linux kernel to W32. Audio and video must be looped back and processed with external programs since Windows doesn't support X or any of the Linux sound systems. Xming or Cygwin/X can be used for X, Esound* for sound.
Note: I didn't have any problem upgrading the kernel internally with apt-get, though I can't be 100% sure it uses the newer kernel.
*URL: http://www.liquid-reality.de/main/projects/esound
Vintage!
It is ported to Winblows via Cygwin.
Here are some more
Ubuntu Linux
Category: OS,LiveDistro
URL: Ubuntu.com
Azuereus
Cat.: Torrent Client
OS: Linux, Windows and I think Mac
URL: I forgot, Google it
OSSwin.sf.net
I'm aware of that. But if you would re-read my post please.
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It's kinda scary when my desktop is messier than my room...